BS in Bioinformatics

What is Bioinformatics?

Bioinformatics is a new and exciting field that stands at the intersection of biology, computer science and information technology, and is among the most revolutionary scientific disciplines of the twenty-first century.

Computing is doing for biology today what the microscope did four centuries ago, allowing scientists to peer deeper into the fundamental processes of life and to extract, record, retrieve, analyze and ultimately utilize for medical and other practical purposes tremendous quantities of information. The human genome, for example, has three billion "letters" in it, organized into less than 30,000 protein coding genes.

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Roles of Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics is concerned with the development and implementation of tools that enable efficient access to, and use and management of, various types of information.

Bioinformatics creates tools that are deployed in the diagnosis and prevention of cancer and other diseases, and in the discovery and/or design of new drugs.

Bioinformatics is concerned with the development of new algorithms (mathematical formulas) and statistics with which to assess relationships among members of large data sets, such as methods to locate a gene within a sequence, predict protein structure and/or function, cluster protein sequences into families of related sequences, and derive intermolecular interactions and biological pathways.

Careers in Bioinformatics

"Industry's demand for scientists with skills in bioinformatics far exceeds the the supply of qualified specialists in the field." -- From Science Magazine

"Because of the need for a background in biology and computer science, bioinformatics specialists can expect to receive salaries that exceed those of individuals in comparable computer careers." -- From Madison Magazine

"The fusion of biology and computer science is the hottest of the hot in science right now, and it's going to heat up even more." -- From SmartMoney.COM